Even in the dead of night the town was lit with an eerie glow, moonlight reflected from the thin dusting of unseasonal snow that swirled in the wind, and gathered in drifts around the walls of the tall houses. The Ogresuns shivered in the darkness and huddled together round a rum bottle that passed from hand to hand. They had ventured beyond the walls of Vercuso and crossed the fallow farmland to the little cliff-top town of Buffardo in an attempt to find out what the Corsairs and the Naval Alliance were up to there.

Unfortunately so had the Nezumi Wokou Skaven; they had naturally assumed the Ogresuns were in communication with the enemy and followed the Orc Pirates across country. Kommodore Deffgit was less than impressed when they loomed up out of the abating snow storm, surrounding the Orcs on all sides!

Two ratty assassin stalked round the port side of the Ogresuns, outflanking the crossbow armed detachment left to cover the Ogresun’s advance. The rest of the crew were caught in a narrow street as the Wokou appeared around them sending sling stones ricocheting off stone flags, walls and skulls. When the ratmen charged the Pirates were so reduced in numbers they barely stood a chance!

As the sun was setting through the evening haze, Willy and his Gentlemen were sat upon the top of the Prison Tower overlooking the Fortified Battery enjoying some rum and cheese on hard tac"t'is a grand view from t'up ere, aint it lads". "Aye Cap'n can almost see the Inferno too munched Tap tap Jack "buts whats that chunnerin from down yonder?"

Willy double blinked to clear his vision from his one eye and peered over the ramparts towards the batter. "looks like the grounds movin t'over there

Just into view two tides of vermin scuttled towards each other squeaking in a rising chorus. "You know what men, me thinks they've sniffed out our darn cheese! This is our best wensledale and there's no chance in eck that them grubby critters are avin' it! Jack you stay ere and watch the cheese, lads we'll move on down and do some pest control."

As the Gentlemen pressed forward to rid the vermin from the battery, the Nazumi had other plans

The smell of the cheese however had seemed to frenzy as the two swarms turned on each other, greedily hoping that the victor would take the prized cheese from the pirates themselves

Sensing an ambush Willy's men rallied together to see the on coming foe!

The pure cheek of the mange ridden rats filled Willy with rage as he charged toward any vermin that came too close his honourable men racing behind to support. The Mad Cap'n rending the ratmen and their foul wizard into two before a final nazumi managed to deflect the last of his many blows, The red eyed beast snarled presuming its chance had come before turning to see a brown blur with a red cap hurling towards him....

Six minutes later the Cap'ns Sea Monkey grew tired of stomping the very dead rat into the dirt and smiled up at Willy "ook?" it ooked. "Aye you did a good job, Willy is proud of ye"

Noticing the bloodied furry patch the rest of the rats turned and fled leaving The Battery unoccupied and open for 'The Gentlemen Of The Inferno!'

"Well done lads, there be plenty of powder for everyone now, lets stock up and finish our supper"

"I fear an ague has struck me down my faithful servants, the light of the Lady of the Lake is calling me home... but I could have sworn I heard her voice ringing true from the waters at the bottom of that well?"

"My lord is that why you sallied forth down the well so... unexpectedly?"

"It was to answer her calls my man, when the beautious Lady calls you, you must not fail to answer *cough*"

Albert le Vague - battler of vampires, scourge of Marienburgers - wrapped himself in his blanket and fell asleep.

Last edited by WarbossKurgan on Sat 19 Sep 2009 - 11:27; edited 1 time in total

“Great Scott, says I. There's a fellow over there on a horse. Now that's dastardly unfair”.

“Unfair, perhaps. But is there anything about horses in the book?”

The weather-beaten, dog-eared, crumb-covered encyclopedia of Mad Mad Mekhmet was pulled out once more by a pudgy looking cultist with powdered cheeks. He turned the pages with those frightfully fat hands of his.

“Nothing in the book”.

“The appendix, check the appendix”.

“I can't, I had mine removed after a bout of violent appendicitis a decade ago. Ba-dum-cha”.

“Damn you, Otto, this is no time for jokes”.

The horseman and the thundering mass of his horse were bearing down on the gaggle of gentlemen with surprising speed. A speed that might worry men of a less ignorant, molly-coddled nature. One of the Amazing Arrows - a cadre of fops who had taken a fancy for archery - loosed his bow and sent an arrow clanging off the dented armour of the knight. A second drew back his string and fired, watching dumbstruck as his shaft punched through the finger-width visor in the knight's helmet and brought him down, horse and all, in a clattering, whinnying mess.

“Jolly good shot, Mercutio”.

“I say, old boy. What a talent”.

“Huzzah!”

And then the rest of the armoured knights, these on foot, turned up. They set about hacking, with peasants a-shooting and squires a-stabbing.

“Retreat, I say”.

“A ripping idea”.

“I agree”.

“Huzzah!”

* * *

The beast – that's what it was, for it couldn't possess any sort of human intelligence – slobbered onto its dirty jerkin, a pirate's hat upon its head and a peg leg at its knee.

“I say, old bean, is this really necessary?”

“It does seem a little dangerous”.

“And it smells”.

“Valid points indeed” said the Pottery Shed Cultists' most recent leader. “But look how big it is. And the book says we must take one, just as Mad Mad Mekhmet did all those years ago”.

“Size isn't everything” piped the stumpy little halfling in the corner, picking at his bow.

“Quiet, you!”

“Abracadabra, alakazam!” said the wizard in the other corner, vapidly dropping newts legs into a pot and rocking side to side.

“And what about this idiot? Him too? It's like a ruddy circus round here!”

“The book says we need a wizard, a halfling and an ogre, for they were the companions of Mad Mad Mekhmet: the apprentice, the scout and the bodyguard. Besides, Mad Mad Mekhmet kills his apprentice approximately seven hours from now anyway, so it should get a little quieter round here”.

The Ogresuns faced the Nezumi Wokou again the following day, and received another sound thrashing. Salty Ogbad tried a diving charge from the city wall: he missed his target and landed on his head, normally not a problem for Orcs but he broke his neck. Several other greenskinned buccaneers also lost their lives before the Orcs fled.

The Ogresuns faced-off against Skrikit's Hold Rats in the south-eastern corner of the city. The Hold Rats nabbed all the treasure and fled before the Orc Pirates got half way to it and after a brief exchange of fire both groups withdrew; knowing that the loot was long gone took some of the will to fight out of both. Wyrdtoof slammed a Skaven assassin into the wall of a ruin using a green ectoplasmic fist – causing the assassin a deep and lasting wound that will probably trouble him for years to come.

"Jack wassup?", "T'is the Cap'n young crab, we were off t'market when we were set upon by a cocky bunch of snivlin' hairy toed cowards hidin' by the monument. The blighters were flingin arrers every which way and one unfortunately hit the Cap'n in a rather delicate place""Naaah surely not, it didn't hit...well...you know...?"Aye me wee laddy, took his Norweigen blue parrot 'Yoho' right off his perch, not stunned but dead. The Cap'n's awefully upset about it. He's gone to the pet shop to make a complaint and given orders to stock up at the battery while he's busy,

Ouch!Looks like those pesky halflings had their way with your crew...Didn't they, me matey?

Dazza wrote:

Luckily I made all my saves and no real injuries ( or deaths unusually for me) were made except for Willy, but at least he's not dead. The others noted below the names are injuries and skills gained so far in the campaign.

Phil typically played a canny game and had set up quite an evil cross-fire I was pinned behind cover and march blocked. and so had to make a fairly slow dash for it to get away, 5 were taken out of action before I fluffed my route test, which i would have voluntarily done anyway at that point I think. I did get some Gc though and stocked up fairly well on black powder.

Arrrghh! The Corsairs were back in the thick of it this week – they focused their efforts on Roba and the Cave of the Damned, breaking the Naval Alliance’s hold on Roba and reinforcing the Corsairs’ hold on the Caves.

Vercuso was the scene of protracted skirmishes; the small bands of fighters were locked into vicious struggles for dominance of the port, often at all hours of the day and night. The Brethren of the Sea have once more edged a narrow advantage over their rivals.

The Corsairs took back the first fragment of Rackham’s Key from the Naval Alliance. There were no underhanded dealings this time though – a straight-up field engagement decided the matter. No faction seems to be able to hold on to a fragment for long when the Corsairs are in the mood for a fight.

Fights broke out within factions again as well - the Brethren in Beffardo and the Corsairs in the Howling Marsh. With so many internecine battles it will be a shock if anyone actually finds the Lost City at this rate!

Hall hard mates, the autumn is here for certain and with the prospect of storms fast approaching the island will be once more battening down for a long hard winter.

"Not the damned Naval Alliance again" hissed Damug Warfang Grey Seer of the Rapscurrion Army. Last time we met them i loast a damned good bell.So they too have heard the rumours of treasure at dragons tooth castle, well i guess we better try and ensure they dont get to it. rally the hoard, its time to ferret out these humans and lay their carcases bare."This time i think we need to be a bit more sneaky. Lets send the gutter runners forward and take out their cannons!"

Felix I will leave you to your own devices, but i would appreciate some help with those verminous knights.Damugs bell had been mostly repaired but was still looking a sorry state of affairs as the slaves started to push it across the battlefield.The battlefield seemed to be cut down the middle by two copses of wood, which the ratling guns and globadiers used to hide themselves in.

One unit of clanrats started the march up the centre towards half of the empire gun line flanked by the Plague monks frothing at the mouth, but the knights were closing in, the globadiers seeing the knights heading towards them marched forward preparing to throw their globes at the knights. seeing this the plague monks headed towards the knights exposed flank, hoping to catch them unawares. but the knights charged the globadiers who ran away from the charging knights and that charge took the knights too far away from the plague rats to charge.The warp lightning cannon fired but it was pointing the wrong way, straight through the ranks of the plague monks also killing 3 of the jezzails on the hill.On the right flank the seer and clanrats were besieged by cannon fire, luckily the seer cast warplightning at the handgunners and the remaining ran off taking a wizard with them. Damug was starting to wonder where the gutter runners were and if life really was cheap why did it seem that most of his army was dead already.

The bell rang out and a couple of slaves died, but the whole army arose in a mountain of frothing mouths eager to get into combat. Suddenly the rats gave a blood curdling squeel and the battle was renewed. The clanrats frothing at the mouth charged the pistoliers who shot out but couldnt stop the frothing tide of hair.The plague monks seeing the knights were lost moved to engage the swordsmen and the 5 remaining clanrats in the centre charged the woodsmen on the edge of the woods, who shot out a volley of arrows slaying 2 more rats and wounding the warlock engineer.

The Warp thr getting close to the grey seer decided to rally.

The bell wrang out again and a great swell of hatred grew amonst the rats, vengence was at stake now. The small unit of clanrats chopped down most of the woodsmen but the Engineer fell to a lucky blow, but the swordsmen couldnt take the attack and ran of being run down by the two clansrats running through the woods into the open.Eventually one of the gutter runner units appeared but they had misjudged their target and appeared behind one of the gunlines.The knights charged the globadiers who stood and shot at the knight killing one before the knights killed the strange ratmen.

The detachment of men were surprised by the charge of the jezzails who killed four of them before they got chance to attack back, they decided to feel and were run down by the frenzied rats. The swordsmen charged the plaguemonks and Felix the Assassin appeared, taking out the empire wizard, but the the empire champion cut down the plague monks hero and the monks somehow seemed to wilt from this attack, they tucked their tails between their legs and were run down by the swordsmen.The seer turned the slaves to face the rear flank of the knights whilst the clanrats turned to face the front rank and a plague of magic rang out wounding the Grand Master and killing all but one of the knights, warplightning rained death on the rocket killing one of the crew and severerly damaging the machine.The gutter runners on the far right charged the mortar crew who fled so insted the tunnel rats ran into the crossbow men hacking them down as they fled. The hellblaster crew ran in fear abandoning their machines.

The Empire knight and Grand Master split off trying to flank the seer and the clanrats, going for death or glory and a bid to survive.The seer cast lightning into the knight killing him leaving the grand master alone ready to charge the clanrats.On the right flank the gutter runners appeared and the cannon got one final blast at the seers slaves, taking a bunch out but the frenzied slaves did not care.

Magic ran out again and the rocket was destroyed, the gutter runners killed the cannon crew and chopped up the cannon on the right flank the jezzails and the remaining gutter runners charged the huntsmen and the combined charge forced the 3 remaining men to run for their lives but too slow were their feet and they were overtaken in a rush of teeth and tailsThe grandMaster charged the clanrats killing a single rat in combat, the rats attacked back causing several possible wounds but the grandmasters army unlike his bottle he turned and fled the small throng of rats who took down his horse leaving the master running off in his armour.

Damug spotted the unit of swordsmen and reeked his vengeance upon then magic rang out and a group of them dropped dead, leaderless and without hope they scattered to the four winds. At this point the old seer gave a wry smile as he spotted felix skulking in the woods apparently he had escaped again when his unit was ran down. In the distance he could see a lone wizard kick his spurs into his horse and rode at speed away, he knew he was out of range."let them run, this island is ours, now about that treasure"

The gutter runners came forward towards the master seer who gave them an evil look "And you took your time, if i had lost another bell i would have your tails for my supper, Luckily i need you for treasure hunting or you would all be dead"With a single flick of his wrist the bell started moving forward to take control of dragons tooth castle, ancient rumours of buried elven treasures surrounded the area, and it would make a great base of operations for his vermin hoard.

"...And the horse you rode in on!"The rag-tag band of men that had arrived at the Merchants' Guild's rusting gates that morning disappeared round the corner, pikestaff ends bobbing as their hunched shoulders carried the weapons-for-hire away.

"I won't tolerate their mercenary likes in our virtuous circle, our Lady has a distaste for men who fight merely for gold, what say you Fauteuil?"

"Aye my lord, I wouldn't trust their sword arms next to me in a melee"Motes of dust twirled in the shaft of weak midday sun, floating from the open balcony above the knights as they stood in the atrium of the once grand guildhouse. As a sudden cloud of dust trickled down, Guillerme Fautueil looked up quizically.There, exquisitely balanced on the balustrade was a figure cloaked in dark green."I say, who goes there? Show yourself knave, gentlemen announce their presence, what!"

"To be shown the door with a boot in the rump, like all the others?" The accent was strange yet melodious: it couldn't be ignored. "I don't come here, palm open, looking to scrape a life from the floor of this vile city, any how. I have news you may yet come to view as compelling."

"We'll not listen to footpads and their ransoming! Archers, take this man down!""I don't think they'll be doing that" The figure reached out and pulled on a thin rope tugging four bound and gagged men into the light, "A precaution. I've been watching them for some time. Promising bows, these men. Saved your aging hides numerous times already eh?"

Albert bristled indignantly, "Aging? Harrumph, I'll lick you into shape you whippersnapper, step down here and we'll use queensbury rules to settle this!""No need for violence good knight. I have a proposition for you. It concerns the enemies of your trade, your caste, this... knight errantry you cling so zealously to. It concerns the Battery..."

Had 2 very good games last night/this morning, first running into the Hold Rats at The Capstan as Slippery Jack reared his misshapen head to snatch at the suicidal rats that leapt into the waters - as if called there by a piper...? - then finding Tim's ogres on the same side of the street, as the rumours of a treasure trove proved true and Raziel and Skikrit raced us for the prizes.

The rats took heavy casualties around The Capstan but held their nerve for an impressive amount of time. As the treasure was dragged from the water and taken towards safety, Skikrit unexpectedly got nervous and ran for the shadows and his band was bound to follow.

The pool held up many treasures for the taking and the rats inevitably got there first closely followed by some supernaturally rapid ghouls and a lumbering rat ogre. Incensed by the vile creatures defiling his sight Albert le Vague spurred his horse on and charged the vampire Raziel as the ogre cheiftan bellowed his orders and joined the fray. A great battle ensued; the Bretonnian archers felling both wizards, Raziel surviving a skewering from a lance and multiple mighty blows, giant rats mauling men-at-arms and ghouls and gnoblars trading blows.

When the dust settled the rats again had turned tail and the undead host had shambled off, the lack of warm bodies leaving them disinterested in mere shiny treasure.

Kommodore Deffgit stood on the quay-side with a group of Orc Pirates: Barnacle Nog, Wyrdtoof, a hulking one-eyed Orc Big Boss called Kaptain Sandbank, and a deck hand called Zogger. Uncomfortable in the presence of so many high-ranking members of the fleet Zogger nervously occupied himself by noisily rifling through the contents of his duffle bag, much to the annoyance of Deffgit.

“If that treasure chest is round here somewhere we’ll find it, don’t you worry Kap’n. Now then, Hogwasha is about the sail: You get back to the fleet Sandbank. When you get there take command of the fastest sloop and head for the Naggaroth Keys and see what prizes ye can catch for yer-self.” said Deffgit, “An’ take Zogger with ya.”

Sandbank scowled, scratched himself and looked at Zogger; the deckhand shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

“Oh yeah, send a boat on from Ogresun with a few more Boyz.” called Deffgit to Sandbank’s back as he and Zogger walked down the pier.

“Roight then, you other dogs come with me.” said the Kommodore and headed into the town.

~ ~ ~

White gulls circled overhead and squawked angrily, the Ogresuns moved through the ruined houses around the Cod & Cutlass inn. As they entered each building they idly searched through the broken timbers, fallen masonry and assorted detritus for signs of a sea-chest with an iron padlock. Kommodore Deffgit was getting impatient – it felt like they had been searching all morning and still they had found nothing. Kaptain Sandbank’s sea-chest was nowhere to be seen.

“Ratmen ho! It’s Skrikit's Hold Rats again!” cried Poxy Uzbad (the Ogresun who was furthest from the group and on lookout duty). Deffgit called out “Look to ye pieces ladz, we’ve got company!” and the pirates grabbed their musketoons and rushed into cover. The double crack of a brace of Warplock pistols reinforced the nearness of the Skaven – the bullets narrowly missed Poxy’s head!

The Grotz got a little over excited at the prospect of a fight and Dread Pirate RogUrtz took the initiative – he clubbed Harpoon Gig into unconsciousness. A loud boom echoed through the ruins as Dubloon Dreg dealt with another squeaker by shooting the irritating Goblin!

When the Skaven appeared in the windows of most of the few buildings that the Ogresuns hadn’t yet searched, Blind Fug also got worked-up and rushed into the final building yelling and bawling. Luckily the Ratmen hadn’t made it there yet – the sea-chest was sitting under a piece of rotting tarpaulin! Fug grabbed it and struggled out into the open.

“Fishgutz! Clap on to the other end of that chest, the rest of you make sure the Skaven don’t get near ‘em!” yelled Deffgit. With Fishgutz’ help the sea-chest was rapidly removed, far from the threat of re-capture. After a shower of silvery magical projectiles narrowly missed him, Wyrdtoof blasted the rival wizard through and open doorway; a cloud of dust and the sound of crashing pots and pans erupted from the door and the wizard didn’t show his face again!

~ ~ ~

With knitted brow Deffgit examined the ornate gilt decoration on the Estallian breastplate, the inlaid enamel work with scrolled ribbons and skulls the gold filigree. He grunted and handed it over to one of the cabin grots.

“Hammer out all that nonsense so I can wear that tomorrow.” he said. The rest of the contents of the sea-chest consisted of a small handful of coins and three large gems. Not the horde that Kap’n Sandbank had implied…

"Out-runned by green-things...wrong-wrong it is! Mine-mine was the tresure! Someone is going to pay for this..."And while the Ogresuns fled to safety with the big chest, Skrikit turned to his own rats, his eyes flashing with hunger...

But since we didn't run through the aftergame section I still don't know if the vicious Assassin has, once again, vented his hunger on his own rats...Next time we meet I'll have to check that out and going through the rest of the aftergame section...

NEWSFLASH!At the end of the campaign, some of the basic locations will be worth DOUBLE CAMPAIGN POINTS (i.e. D6-3 x2 - that's 2, 4 or 6 points each!!) if they are held by a member of a certain faction! (These were selected blindly on the basis of fluff - some are already in the possession of those who will benefit most from them, others will have to be fought for! Faction in-fighting is thoroughly encouraged - don't forget, Vercuso is ultimately about the individual winning warband!)